It is believed that the name Bosnia originated as a hydronym, and gets its name from that of the Bosna River. Bosna is a name of pre-Slavic origin. Some scholars connect Ad Basante, a Roman Road Station, to Bosnia. The river's name was first recorded in the Roman chronicles as 'Bossina'. Philologist Anton Mayer has traced the name 'Bosna' to Proto Indo European (PIE) root 'bos' or 'bogh'*, taken to mean 'running water'.
However, the reconstructed or re-engineered Proto-Indo-European language, of all the Proto-Indo-European languages is closest to Sanskrit. Here's a look at the name 'Bosnia' through the Sanskrit lens. The Sanskrit root words for 'flow', 'water current' or 'flowing' are 'vAha' (वाह) and 'vaha' (वह), which in the Sanskrit-derived languages, such as Hindi, have, with time, changed into 'baha' (बह). The transposition of the sound 'v' by 'b' is common as languages change and distort*. In fact, a variant of the Bosna River's name, still in use, is "Vasana'.
It is in the context of the name Vasana that one may look at what the Croatian linguist, and one of the world's foremost onomastics experts, Petar Skok expressed as an opinion that the chronological transformation of this hydronym from the Roman times to its final Slavicization occurred in the following order; *Bassanus> *Bassenus> *Bassinus> *Bosina> Bosьna> Bosna. Right from the name Vasana and Bosna, we find the names are just a slight tweaking of their Sanskrit root words.
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| Bosnia gets its name from River Bosnia |
In Sanskrit 'vahini'* (वाहिनी) means 'river' or a 'river channel'. 'Vaha' ( वाह ), as mentioned above, means 'to flow', but it also means 'to carry'. It is from here that the Sanskrit word 'vahana' (वाहन), meaning 'transportation, cart or car', is derived. It is also the word from which the English 'vehicle' is derived. However, English dictionaries trace the word 'vehicle' to Proto Indo European 'wegh', which is taken to mean 'to carry'. In Sanskrit, 'vega' (वेग) means 'momentum' or 'velocity'.
Apart from the fact that the river Bosnia is also known by the name Vasana, there is another river by the name of 'Vah' in neighboring Slovakia. It has two branches, Biely Vah (White Vah) and Cierny Vah (Black Vah). In Sanskrit, 'Balaksha' (बलक्ष) means white and 'Krishna' (कृष्ण) means black, and 'Biely' and 'Cierny' are certainly related to these two Sanskrit words.
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| The River Vah, Slovakia 'Vah' ( वह) means 'to flow' in Sanskrit. |
As an aside, one may note that the Sanskrit word 'Vahini' has to do with 'moving, flowing or anything which has force'. It is therefore also the Sanskrit for 'armed forces'. For example, in the word 'Mukhti Bahini' (Bangladesh Liberation Force), once again, in this name too 'Vahini' has changed into 'Bahini'.
